Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo coast region

Catlin, James; Jones, Tod; Norman, Brad; Wood, David

doi:10.1002/jtr.742

Cited by 46 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…In another, two-part, study and Catlin, Jones, Norman, and Wood (2010) discovered that whale shark tourism at Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia, had developed according to the trajectory proposed by the Duffus and Dearden (1990) model. By comparing results collected from survey participants in 2005 and 2006 to work published a decade earlier, it was determined that participant numbers had consolidated subsequent to a period of strong growth.…”

Section: Figure 3: Specialisation Construct Developed For Polar Bear mentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting Duffus and Dearden’s wildlife tourism framework

Catlin¹,

Jones²,

Jones³

2011

Biological Conservation

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Wildlife tourism can be broadly viewed as any tourist activity that has wildlife as its focus of attraction. This can either be in the form of consumptive (i.e. hunting and fishing) or nonconsumptive (i.e. wildlife watching) activities and can be based on either captive or free ranging wildlife (Higginbottom 2004). Duffus and Dearden coined the term non-consumptive wildlife-oriented recreation (NCWOR). They focused their attention on the non-consumptive free ranging form: "a human recreational engagement with wildlife wherein the focal organism is not purposefully removed or permanently affected by the engagement" (Duffus and Dearden 1990 p215). For the purpose of this paper 'wildlife tourism' which focuses on non-consumptive uses of wildlife will be used in place of NCWOR since this is the more frequently employed term in the wider literature. Duffus and Dearden (1990) essentially hoped to demonstrate through their conceptual framework, that a multi-disciplinary approach is required by both managers and researchers in order to enhance wildlife conservation and the visitor experience appropriately. Until recently their theory has remained highly 3 respected, but gone largely untested. Given a number of recent developments in the literature of wildlife tourism and in tourism more generally it is pertinent to discuss Duffus and Dearden's (1990) wildlife tourism framework in light of these recent studies. Duffus and Dearden Wildlife Tourism TheoryDuffus and Dearden (1990) were the first to propose a conceptual framework for understanding the complexities of non-consumptive wildlife tourism (Figure 1). They brought together research from a range of different disciplines, including biology, recreation, tourism, animal behaviour, and wildlife management to create their model. Their work was conceived at a time when there was a transition in wildlife tourism management, from perspectives that focused on bag limits, to a multi-disciplinary approach attempting to understand and manage the complexities of wildlife tourism. Their framework identifies three major dimensions of wildlife tourism interaction, namely, the wildlife tourist; the focal species and its habitat; and the historical relationships between them. From this platform they then discuss the relationships between these components of wildlife tourism. Figure 1: Duffus and Dearden's wildlife tourism frameworkSource: (Duffus and Dearden 1990) Duffus and Dearden (1990) state that the popularity of a species for a tourism focus is largely dictated by the historical relationship between humans and that particular species. They contend that this demand for the physical or experiential consumption of a particular species is a direct result of prior human impact on the species and its environment. That is, tourists are drawn to species that are rare or uncommon, which is often a result of increased past or present negative anthropogenic pressures. On the other hand, the opposite is true for animals 4 that are regularly or readily seen, such as domestic pets and agr...

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Section: Figure 3: Specialisation Construct Developed For Polar Bear mentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting Duffus and Dearden’s wildlife tourism framework

Catlin¹,

Jones²,

Jones³

2011

Biological Conservation

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“…However, sharks have other attractive economic values, as shown through the development of ecotourism of the whale shark, Rhincodon typus, in the Republic of Seychelles (Rowat and Engelhardt 2007), and in Australia where the world's first whale shark tourism industry was established in 1989. In 2006, tourist expenditures in the region of Ningaloo Reef (Western Australia) were USD758 per trip, and the total expenditure was USD5.9 million (Catlin et al 2009). Recreational activities in South Africa, focussing on snorkelling in the Aliwal Shoal region (KwalaZulu Land) with tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, generated around USD1.62 million per year (Dicken and Hosking 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Business partner or simple catch? The economic value of the sicklefin lemon shark in French Polynesia

Clua

Buray

Legendre

et al. 2011

Mar. Freshwater Res.

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Abstract. Most arguments invoked so far by the scientific community in favour of shark conservation rely on the ecological importance of sharks, and have little impact on management policies. During a 57-month study, we were able to individually recognise 39 sicklefin lemon sharks that support a shark-feeding ecotourism activity in Moorea Island, French Polynesia. We calculated the direct global revenue generated by the provisioning site, based on the expenses of local and international divers. The total yearly revenue was around USD5.4 million and the 13 sharks most often observed at the site had an average contribution each of around USD316 699. Any one of these sharks represents a potential contribution of USD2.64 million during its life span. We argue that publicising economic values per individual will be more effective than general declarations about their ecological importance for convincing policy makers and fishers that a live shark is more valuable than a dead shark for the local economy. Studies monitoring the potential negative ecological effects of long-term feeding of sharks should, however, be conducted to ensure these are also considered. Besides declarations about the nonconsumptive direct-use value of sharks, as promoted by ecotourism, the calculation of their other economic values should also benefit shark conservation.

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“…The whale shark tourism industry that operates at Ningaloo Reef is a world leader in terms of management and the adoption of a code of best practise for tour operators. The number of tour operators has been controlled through the use of licensing since 1993 (Catlin et al, 2010;Rowat and Brooks, 2012) and the number of vessels operating at Ningaloo has never exceeded 15 (Catlin et al, 2010), which is much lower than the number of vessels operating in Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula. These examples demonstrate the importance of regulating the number of boats that operate in the industry and strictly enforcing the codes of conduct, in order to maintain the sustainability of whale shark tourism.…”

Section: Tourism Interactions With Whale Sharksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2006, the estimated value of the whale shark tourism industry to the local economy was AUD $6 million (Catlin et al, 2010), a value which has subsequently increased, with participant numbers continuing to grow every year (DPaW, 2013). The Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW, formally known as the Department of Environment and Conservation) manages the whale shark tourism industry in the Ningaloo Marine Park and has allocated a restricted number of licences since 1993 (Catlin et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The whale shark tourism industry at Ningaloo Reef began in 1989 (Catlin et al, 2010) and has prospered since then, with tourist numbers increasing from 1000 in 1993 to over 17,000 in 201117,000 in (DPaW, 2013. In 2006, the estimated value of the whale shark tourism industry to the local economy was AUD $6 million (Catlin et al, 2010), a value which has subsequently increased, with participant numbers continuing to grow every year (DPaW, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial and temporal patterns of nature-based tourism interactions with whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

Anderson

Kobryn

Norman

et al. 2014

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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a b s t r a c tAs with other nature-based tourism ventures, whale shark tourism is expanding rapidly worldwide, which highlights the need to understand more about the nature of these activities. Records of interactions between tour operators and whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia (22. (2009 and 2010) were used to plot the smoothed densities of tour operator interactions with whale sharks. Generalised linear models were used to investigate how the presence/absence and number of whale shark interactions at North and South Ningaloo were influenced by the distance to the reef crest, the distance to passages and their interaction terms for the aggregated five-year data set. Over the five years, distance to the reef crest was the best predictor of the presence/absence of whale shark interactions at both North (interactions concentrated within 3 km of the reef crest) and South Ningaloo (interactions within 6 km of the reef crest) followed by distance to passages. The reef passages are very significant areas for tourism interactions with whale sharks at Ningaloo. The distribution of interactions at North and South Ningaloo varied from year to year, particularly in the strong La Niña year of 2010, when average sea surface temperatures remained above 24 C and whale sharks were observed much later in the year than previously (late August). This study demonstrates the value of the data collected by the tour operators at Ningaloo Reef and managed by a government agency for the conservation and sustainable whale shark tourism.

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Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo coast region

Cited by 46 publications

References 26 publications

Revisiting Duffus and Dearden’s wildlife tourism framework

Revisiting Duffus and Dearden’s wildlife tourism framework

Business partner or simple catch? The economic value of the sicklefin lemon shark in French Polynesia

Spatial and temporal patterns of nature-based tourism interactions with whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

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